Few political acts in recent times have been quite as brazen as the Russian government’s dismemberment of Yukos a decade ago.
In a few cynical moves, President Vladimir Putin destroyed a political opponent, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and seized control of his business – then Russia’s largest oil company. An action ostensibly aimed at reining in a rapacious oligarch was in reality used to bolster dramatically the Kremlin’s own power and patronage.
An international tribunal based in The Hague has now delivered its judgment on the Yukos affair. It adds little to the wider world’s understanding of what happened in 2004. But it makes grim reading for the Kremlin, and can only add to Mr Putin’s troubles when he faces the prospect of tighter western sanctions over Russia’s military involvement in Ukraine.